US soldiers kill Fallujah civilians

People read the Koran as they gathered around the coffins of people killed in a raid by Iraqi and American security forces in Falluja on Wednesday

From the New York Times in the USA:

7 Civilians Killed in U.S. and Iraqi Raid

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and DURAID ADNAN

Published: September 15, 2010

BAGHDAD — Seven Iraqi civilians were killed near the western city of Falluja on Wednesday during an early morning raid conducted by American and Iraqi security forces, officials said.

A wounded man was taken to a hospital in Falluja in the aftermath of a raid by American and Iraqi security forces where seven people were killed and four injured on Wednesday.

Four of the dead were brothers between the ages of 12 and 23, according to the Iraqi police and residents of the area. The United States military in Iraq said in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon that the Iraqi military had “planned and led” the “joint counterterrorism” operation. The raid underscored the continuing presence of American service members in security operations, even after the United States declared an official end to the combat at the end of August. An American military spokesman directed inquiries to the government of Iraq.

It is not clear whether the dead were the targets of the raid or how they were killed. Four other people were wounded during the operation. …

Qasim Mohammed Abed, the governor of Anbar Province, said he had been angered by how the raid was conducted and blamed both the American and Iraqi militaries for the deaths.

“We did not know about this operation — they only informed us that there was going to be a small raid in which they would arrest someone,” he said. “We did not expect this to happen.”

Mr. Abed said he had been told by witnesses that the deaths were unjustified.

“The security forces behaved without morals,” the governor said. “They say that people there resisted them, but it is not true. No one resisted them. They just came to bring trouble to this province.”

Two weeks after Obama proclaimed the end of the US “combat mission” in Iraq, a raid by US troops has claimed the lives of at least eight Iraqi civilians in Fallujah: here.

Specialist Neftaly Platero is being accused of shooting and killing two fellow soldiers and wounding one more. The US military says that the incident took place last Thursday after an argument broke out at Camp Fallujah in Iraq. The two men died from their injuries the next day, the third is still being treated for his wounds: here.